CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Hallgató, Rita |
|---|---|
| Title | The Price of Success - Women in Corporate Leadership Bargaining with Neoliberal Patriarchy |
| Summary | The purpose of this study is to understand how women in senior corporate leadership navigate the gendered challenges that derive from hegemonic masculinity and neoliberal patriarchy, and how they remain successful despite the obstacles they face. My study interrogates to what extent my interviewees bargain with neoliberal patriarchy (Kandiyoti, 1988), what strategies they employ and what circumstances force them to reproduce this patriarchy. My interviews with 13 women leaders reveal patterns in their strategies that I present through two main findings. First, they leave no doubt that they belong and deserve to be there equally to men, and second, they rise above the gendered challenges in pursuit of personal and career objectives, that are equivalent to their understanding of success. All of this necessitates a substantial amount of effort, encompassing both emotional and body work, which can lead to exhaustion and burn-out. This creates an augmented level of difficulty in comparison to men and thereby preserves gender inequality. I conclude, that individual agency is closely associated with bargaining, and the more agentic my interviewees are the better they can succeed. However, navigating the inherently patriarchal workplace is demanding, that sometimes results in actions that reinforce the domination of hegemonic masculinity. |
| Supervisor | Fodor, Éva |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/hallgato_rita.pdf |
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